From: SHARPE, Ian [mailto:Ian.SHARPE@cambridge.sema.slb.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 1:33 AM
> To: WAI (E-mail)
> Subject: RE: statistics - for differences between accessible and
> non-acce ssible sites?
>
>
> Simon, couldn't agree more with your sentiment but sadly am
> not so confident that legislation will ensure sites are made accessible. As
> far as I'm aware only 508 in the US ensure sites/software purchased by US
government be accessible. (That's my understanding anyway, maybe I'm
> wrong?) Even this limited legislation isn't even true in the UK. It should
be!! And the rest!!
Ian you are correct in one respect. Section 508 is US legislation. However
many other countries have legislation in place which protects the rights of
people with disabilities and can be applied to areas such as web
accessibility.
Australia, for example, has chosen not to develop enforceable standards such
as those developed under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The reason for
this decision is that the Australian Government believes that the Disability
Discrimination Act of 1992 adequately covers the rights of people with
disabilities to be able to access information and other material through the
Web. This requirement applies to any individual or organisation developing a
World Wide Web page in Australia, or placing or maintaining a Web page on an
Australian server. The relevant provision of the Act is Section 24 relating to
the provision of goods and services. The adequacy of this legislation to
protect the rights of individuals to be able to access information from the
web was successfully applied in Bruce Lindsay Maguire v Sydney Organising
Committee for the Olympic Games case in which the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission determined that:
…the respondent has discriminated against the complainant in breach of section
24 of the DDA.
The UK also has a disability discrimination act (1995) and so do many other
countries. Check out the policy links from the W3C web site for details of the
relevant legislation in other countries: http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/
-------------------------------------------
Denise
Dr Denise L Wood
Lecturer: Professional Development (online teaching and learning)
University of South Australia
CE Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
Ph: (61 8) 8302 2172 / (61 8) 8302 4472 (Tuesdays & Thursdays)
Fax: (61 8) 8302 2363 / (61 8) 8302 4390
Mob: (0413 648 260)
Email: Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au
WWW: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood